Develop organisers have announced that the opening keynote of the event, a chat with LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule and ex-SCE WWS head Phil Harrison, will be the main headliner later this month. Harrison, who first brought the company to Sony’s attention, will interview co-founders Alex Evans, Mark Healey and Kareem Ettouney for a session called […]

Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the Shadow Minister for Culture have each been announced to speak at the London Games Conference on October 27 at BAFTA. According to the press release, the conference “will tackle the biggest issues facing publishers and developers today: How to strengthen relationships with their playing customers and how to sell products […]

Phil Harrison’s role as president of Infogrames is done and dusted, Atari said in a statement this morning. “Because of a shift of business operations to the US, Phil Harrison will move from the role of President to that of non-executive Director of the Group,” said the firm. “As all Board members, he will continue […]

It’s so on. VG247 has learned this morning that Will Wright, Warren Spector, Neil Young, Rob Pardo and Phil Harrison are all confirmed for Dave Perry’s Luminaries Lunch at GDC next month. The chat takes place on March 25 at 1.00pm PST. The inaugural event at last year’s GDC bore witness to some spectacular quotes […]

God of War 2 director Cory Barlog has admitted in a 1UP interview that Phil Harrison questioned the wisdom of putting God of War 2 on PS2 instead of PS3, a tactic endorsed by now head of worldwide studios at Sony, Shuhei Yoshida. The full quote: Shuhei was handling a lot of the projects through […]

Phil Harrison’s told MCV he wants to prove Bobby Kotick was wrong to dump Terminal Reality’s Ghostbusters when Activision merged with Blizzard. “What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels,” said the Atari boss. “If that’s his benchmark, then fine – and we’d […]

Atari boss – nee Sony Worldwide Studios head – Phil Harrison’s told Eurogamer that PSP’s still the place the be. “There is no doubt that PSP is a very vibrant platform from a hardware perspective and I think Sony has recently made some good moves into opening up online distribution for software on PSP, so […]

Speaking to Eurogamer at Atari Live in London this week, company boss former Sony studios head Phil Harrison said he thought his former firm had succeeded in its aims with Home. The development team had “brilliantly realised their ambitions,” he said, and predicted that Sony “will have a very successful platform”. Harrison also tipped his […]

We weren’t there – Mrs Pat’s the most pregnant woman in the world – but now we can all see Phil Harrison and David Gardner deliver the Atari Live keynote from London this week right here. There’s a video of the entire thing, kicking off with a showreel of upcoming product and Gardner telling the […]

Speaking to Edge at Atari Live in London this week, company boss Phil Harrison has predicted that the upcoming generation will never use a disc. For anything. “There’s a generation of kids being born today and probably already alive who I’m pretty confident will never buy a physical media product,” he said. “They will never […]

Talking at yesterday’s Atari Live event in London, Atari CEO David Gardner explained that secondhand sales have been damaging for the gaming industry. “Secondhand game sales represent consumer choice and desire,” he said. “Obviously, it has economically been extremely painful for the industry… the publishers don’t benefit. “But as games change and they become more […]

Just in case there was any doubt about CD Projekt’s The Witcher coming to consoles, Atari press released the 360 and PS3 versions this afternoon. Both are out next autumn. “The creative vision and dedication to the quality of the player experience that CD Projekt RED bring to the Witcher games is extraordinary, and it’s […]

Whilst talking about Unity middleware platfrom in Copenhagen, Atari exec Phil Harrison has said that the reason many games fail is due to going from “concept to production in one jump.” “Here is my EUR 10 million gift to this room — all of the mistakes I have made in software development have been based […]

Atari president Phil Harrison has told GI that Sony took “absolutely the decision” in recalling LittleBigPlanet after the company withdrew the game from retail due to complaints about a song that contained two sentences from the Qur’an featured on the disc. “I wasn’t privy to all of the discussions and debate that went on within […]

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SCEE’s just issued a statement on the departure of SingStar head Paulina Bozek to Atari – announced this morning – saying she’ll be missed. “We are obviously very sorry to learn that Paulina will be leaving us,” said a rep. “She has been a huge part of our family at WWS and London Studio and […]

Update: SCEE just put out a statement on this, saying Bozek will be missed. Iconic SingStar boss Paulina Bozek has quit Sony to take a job with Phil Harrison’s Infogrames. Bozek is now development director of a new online game studio at the firm. “I am very excited to be joining Atari at this pivotal […]

Antoine Villette, founder of I Am Alive developer Darkworks, has told VG247 he believes Alone in the Dark can still be great, but only if Atari is prepared to make radical changes to its format. “When we took Alone in the Dark in 2001 it was to renew the franchise with names, characters, we tried […]

Our ears are so close to the ground they’re all mossy. Highly placed sources told VG247 today that the real reason for Phil Harrison’s departure from Sony was that work is now starting on PS4 and deja vu was setting in. “He could see he was about to get involved in another PlayStation cycle, and […]

Alex Evans, co-founder of Media Molecule has told GI that former Sony head – and now Atari shoulders – Phil Harrison’s influence on LittleBigPlanet’s early days was “completely key and pivotal”. “Obviously that then transitioned into Sony, and especially the team at Liverpool, and Michael Denny – I don’t want to downplay their roles as […]

Atari’s announced that Alone in the Dark is now gold for 360, PC, Wii and PS2. “With its genre-busting mix of gameplay, wide-screen presentation style and DVD chapter select feature putting the player in control, Alone in the Dark will thrill all gamers,” said Infogrames boss Phil Harrison. “It’s a game which will challenge the […]

PlayStation mega-boss Kaz Hirai has admitted that he had no idea former Sony worldwide studios president Phil Harrison was moving to Atari until the deed was done. “At the time, I didn’t know he was going to Atari,” Hirai told ThreeSpeech. “It was obviously a surprise when he told me he was going to move […]

Speaking to Eurogamer, Infogrames president Phil Harrison has admitted he’s a 360 fanboy. Or not. We can’t quite work it out. “I’ve always recognised its capabilities, so it’s not like I’ve woken up and gone, ‘Ooh, I’m a real 360 fan now.’ I’m in a different part of the industry so I have a different […]

Talking to the MTV multiplayer blog, Infogrames president Phil Harrison would not say one way or the other if Alone in the Dark PS3 will feature Home and trophy support. “If the libraries are available, then yeah, I would hope that the PS3 version can take advantage of that,” he told the site. Alone in […]

Atari rolled out the red carpet in London last week for its pre-launch showing of Alone in the Dark, flying in a tired-looking Phil Harrison from New York to intro the game and give a few interviews. Talking to the big man is always a pleasure, and this time especially so, given his recent move […]

Speaking to Gamasutra, Atari games boss Phil Harrison has admitted that Alone in the Dark may well be the final “core” game Atari makes. “I don’t see that we’re going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have ambition to do really incredible games […]

According to this Next-Gen report, Sony’s named Phil Harrison’s replacement as president of SCE worldwide studios as Shuhei Yoshida, currently SVP of US studios at SCE worldwide. “SCE WWS has been developing global hit titles, sharing resources and know-how within SCE Group since its foundation, and we will reinforce our software business by further enhancing […]

Infogrames boss David Gardner has told GamesIndustry.biz that the name “Infrogrames” may be ditched in favour of “Atari”. “I’d like to consider that, I think that would be the final mark of the transformation from Infogrames to Atari,” he said. “We have a new board of directors, a new management team that’s less than a […]

Infogrames has offered to buy the remaining Atari stock for $1.68 per share. The French firm already owns 51 percent of the ailing game-maker. Atari signed a new distribution deal with parent Infogrames last December, to last for the next three years. We assume the mov to take complete control of the brand is all […]

Yep, you can watch it. It’s almost like being there. Phil’s looking nice in his shirt and jumper, and David Gardner’s sporting a black polo neck. This was shot in New York earlier this week ahead of an Alone in the Dark press presentation.

Phil Harrison’s given his first speech as president of Infogrames in New York, ahead of a press presentation of Alone in the Dark. Explaining why he quit his former role as head of PlayStation development, he pointed to “the things that excited me the most, the things that turned me on as a gamer, and […]

Here. A very worthwhile GI piece that tells you everything you need to know about what future-creating BFFs Phil and David have to look back on as history in the Atari brand. Any article that begins, “The original Atari Inc was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney as an arcade engineering firm, […]

Not a future, but the future. Following news late last night that Phil Harrison is to join Infogrames as president, CEO David Gardner has got all excited about the new Atari. “In terms of European leaders in the games development industry, I’ve always wanted to work with Phil,” he said. “He’s going to partner with […]

Following last night’s revelation that Phil Harrison has now been appointed president of Infogrames, CEO David Gardner has been quick to dispel any conception that the company and its game-specific subsidiary Atari are in any way on thin ice. “We have a lot more cash than start-up companies do,” he said. “So I view ourselves […]

As predicted (sorry, we said it was going to happen this morning), Phil Harrison has been confirmed as the new president of Atari’s parent company, Infogrames. Harrison resigned from SCEE last week, where he enjoyed a 15-year career that culminated with him heading up Sony’s worldwide studios as president. The press release can be found […]

We found him. Phil Harrison was at the 1 million PS3 party in London last night, and wasn’t giving many clues about what happened to cause his resignation or where he was going after Sony. “He was completely avoiding saying anything about where he was going,” said one reveler. “He just laughed off the fact […]

Here. There’s an awful lot about Phil Harrison in that feature, and it’s an essential read after the man resigned from SCEE this morning. We still don’t know why or where he’s going, but a move to Atari’s been rumoured. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Expect this to be the first of several editorials on the departure of SCEE front-man Phil Harrison throughout today and this week. It’s essentially Colin Campbell’s take on the resignation (derived, it seems from a recent and “agreeable” lunch). “He’s done launching consoles; so he won’t hop over to a direct Sony competitor; nor, I […]

According to this, Phil Harrison – just resigned from SCEE – may be on the way to join former EA chief David Garner at Atari. Gardner has been making plenty of noise in the last few weeks about rejuvinating the ailing Infogrames pet. We’ll just have to see, we guess.

Just in from Sony. Phil Harrison – president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, to give him his full job title – has resigned. Kaz Hirai, president of SCEI, is to take control of Sony worldwide studios, Harrison’s job up to this point. “The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining […]

Last week’s GDC was a strange affair that threw up more questions than answers. While it carried the predicted unveiling of Gears of War 2 and a Microsoft keynote holding traditional big hitters such as Fable 2 and Ninja Gaiden II, the event’s main speech’s message was by no means “the norm”. Yes, the blood, […]